100th Anniversary marked for Heights Fire Co.
KAYLEE LINDENMUTH / SHENANDOAH SENTINEL - The Shenandoah Heights Fire Company celebrated its 100th Anniversary on July 1, 2023.
SHENANDOAH HEIGHTS – Not long after the first lot was sold in the fledgling West Mahanoy Township suburb of what was then Schuylkill County’s largest community, the Shenandoah Heights Fire Company was organized.
Shenandoah Heights was under three years old and rapidly developing atop Locust Mountain in 1923 when residents knew something needed to be done to provide fire protection.
The nearest fire companies were “downtown” in Shenandoah borough or in the valley in Pattersonville. While Shenandoah was only a mile away, the Heights Hill road we know today was still 13 years away. Getting up to the Heights or its cemeteries was not easy in general, let alone for the borough’s earliest motorized fire apparatus.
To protect their loved ones and properties, several volunteers organized the Shenandoah Heights Fire Company and began efforts to acquire a truck and build a firehouse.
By the end of 1925, the company had everything they needed, except a firehouse. Their 1925 Hahn was shuffled from place to place until the firehouse at Swatara Road and Virginia Avenue was completed.
A report in the Shenandoah Evening Herald reported that the building was “under cover” in December of 1925, but a six month miners’ strike delayed its completion.
In September 1926, the firehouse was completed and dedicated and by 1938, the mortgage was paid off and burned.
Over the next several decades, the company kept pace with improvements in equipment, adding another Hahn and maxim fire truck.
The Heights Fire Company was dealt a major setback in 1971 when the firehouse burned.
A newspaper deliveryman spotted the fire around 4:30am on Dec. 21, 1971. A fire company member who lived across the street — Anthony Wysoski, Jr. — ran in and saved the company’s two trucks from destruction.
The Evening Herald reported at the time that the blaze caused $90,000 in damage and state police suspected arson in the case. A safe in the social hall was seen moved and damaged by a failed attempt to breach it.
“I’ll tell you one thing — and you can put it in the paper as a direct quote from me — the guy who did this better hope the police get to them first, because if our guys get to him…” then-Fire Co. President Stanley Bokunewicz, Jr., told the Herald at the time.
Within a year, the fire company had rebuilt and dedicated the new social rooms in November of 1972.
The company again continued to update apparatus, with a new Chevrolet truck in the 1990s and in 2009, an HME/Rosenbauer pumper.
Behind the firehouse is a grove and playground, providing the only recreational area in Shenandoah Heights.
That grove played host to today’s festivities, celebrating the company’s centennial with food, music, and fireworks.
The Shenandoah All-Star Polka Band performed in the afternoon and several food trucks were on site.
A cornhole tournament was also held.
Fireworks are set for dusk tonight.
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